


The Army of Loved Ones

by ShadeCrawler



Series: The war is over (so why can't I relax?) [2]
Category: Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: Gen, Iori's Mother, Ken's Mother, Miyako's Mother
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-11 18:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12941565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeCrawler/pseuds/ShadeCrawler
Summary: The missing children left family behind. How are they coping?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_rest_is_silence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rest_is_silence/gifts).



It started out as one worried mother calling another.

Ichijouji Eimi had always been worried about her youngest son. He was painfully shy and didn't have any friends outside of the other Chosen Children. While she didn't have any problems with the other children, she wished that there was a part of Ken's life that wasn't involved with that world. She saw the injuries that he tried to hide and wanted to cry. She spent years becoming a nurse and have seen her share of painful injuries. But, she never thought she would have to sit her son down and show him how to treat injuries that he and his friends might get.

Eimi wanted to pull him away and forbid him from returning to that place. She wanted to shake him and tell him that no mother should have to go through what she went through every time she saw one of his harsher bruises. 

But, she couldn't. Every time she thought of doing so, he would smile at his partner and she would remember a time where he didn't smile at all. He would laugh at one of Miyako's jokes and she would remember the days he was alone in his room. She would crack open his door late at night and see him and Daisuke try and pretend they were asleep and not trading stories. 

All a mother wants is for her child to be safe and happy. And, he was safe. She would never doubt Wormmon's dedication to her child. She's seen the way he looked at him and saw love in his eyes. He would jump in front of any enemy for Ken and she knew that he would watch both her and his world burn if it meant keeping Ken safe. And, he had an army of children and Digimon willing to go to any lengths for him and vice versa. 

But, he was her son. Her only son left. She remember having to go identify Osamu's body and couldn't imagine Ken's body in his place. So, when Ken mentioned that he was heading for a sleepover in the Digital world, she packed him a first aid kit, a bag full of sandwiches to share, and phoned her long time friend, Hida Fumiko, to stress over Chosen Children.

Fumiko's little boy Iori reminded Eimi so much of Ken when he younger. Shy, blunt at times, and so very sweet. He was the youngest of Ken's team and one of his newest friends. He would come over almost as often as Daisuke to hang out with him. Their relationship was very different from the ones Ken had with his other friends. She would often find them studying together or reading in comfortable silence. 

Fumiko would call her almost every day to talk about Iori and how scared she got every time he went into the damn world. After her husband died, she was very protective towards her son and to have him go into a place where she couldn't follow broke her heart. 

Every time Fumiko would call her, Eimi would prepare a cup of tea and they would complain about their children's dangerous lives.

Their daily phone calls soon extended to Daisuke's older sister when she came to the Ichijouji residence nearly in tears because Daisuke came home with his face torn open with so many cuts that Jun said it was basically a blood faucet. She had come to pick up a few things Daisuke had left there by accident. Eimi brought her in and, after making sure she was of legal age, gave her a cup of strong tea.

Jun would tell her of not just of her otouto but of her friend's sister Miyako. The two fought a lot but, according to Jun, it was more like little siblings bickering. She said that the two of them have known each other for so long that she's heard them call each other nee-san and otouto at times. She remembered asking Jun if it bothered her for Daisuke to consider another girl his sister. Jun shook her head and said that she called Miyako imouto too. She was as much as part of their family as they were.

Takeru's parents come in and out of her apartment. Ishida Hiroaki came one day to pick up Takeru and they ended up trading phone numbers. Takaishi Nancy was a part of her knitting circle and they would knit and chat for hours on end. While both of them were supportive of their children's roles, they both admitted they were scared of their children facing enemies larger and stronger than them.

Hikari's mother, Yagami Yuuko, was introduced to Eimi by Nancy. They had good times chatting about their children and cooking adventurous meals. Yuuko said that while she didn't like the role her children played, she would never forbid them from going. She explained that her son, Taichi, said that their partners were so much more than mere friends. He once told her that they were another piece of their souls and to deny them that would be her failing as a mother. Eimi took that to heart and made a silent promise to Ken to never forbid him from following his partner where they needed to go. 

Miyako's mother came into the fold suddenly and unexpectedly when Yumiko brought her along one day when for lunch and introduced her as Ran Inoue. It seems that Miyako had inherited her bluntness and eagerness to talk from Ran. Eimi learned so much about the Chosen Children from Ran. She learned that their goal was to protect the Digital World and to keep the peace. 

When they left she pursued her lips, clenched her fists, and pushed them into her eyes. Whoever had put these children into this roles had earned her never ending hatred. They were putting children in situations where they could die. Ken, Miyako, Iori, Hikari, Takeru, and Daisuke could easily die and they would only figure it out when they failed to show up for their curfew. 

But, she would do what she could for her child. She would support him and show him how to treat minor cuts and bruises. She would keep her peace when Ken left their world and into the more dangerous one. She could do this. She had to do this.

And, she did do it. That is, until Ken, Iori, Miyako, and Daisuke went missing.

* * *

 It was as she predicted. No one knew that they were missing until they failed to show up for their curfew.

She and her husband watched the clock and didn't say anything as it went past Ken's curfew. He was alright. He had been late before and would turn up the next morning. He probably lost track of time or decided to sleep over with his friends. Besides, he had Wormmon with him. He had to be alright. He would be alright.

Eimi didn't have any sleep that night. She cuddled into her husband and kept her eyes on her alarm clock. She tried to listen for the creak of a loose floor board that would signal Ken's return.

He never came home.

Jun called that morning, frantically asking if Daisuke had slept over at their apartment. Something in Eimi broke because she was about to ask that same question regarding Ken.

Ran, Jun, and Yumiko met up with Eimi at a local cafe and huddled together, trying to comfort each other. The three mothers and sister held hands and shakily smiled at each other. Ken was okay. Daisuke was okay. Iori was okay. Miyako was okay. They had to be okay.

Eimi called the other parents in their little group before heading to the cafe. Yuuoko, Nancy, and Hiroaki didn't answer their phone. She called them time and time again but they never answered.

Jun was the first one to break when she called her brother over her cell phone. She was met with no dial tone, just static. After that, it seemed to be a race for who could reach the supposedly missing children first.

Each call was met with static. Except Takeru and Hikari's. There was no static there. Their numbers no longer existed.

* * *

Yumiko phoned Eimi as soon as she got home saying that she saw Hikari and Takeru crossing the street from the school. They were alive and safe.

Eimi should've felt relieve at that news. It should've brought her to her knees and sent her into tears. 

But, her son was missing and no one had thought to call her. She came home to her husband staring at his phone with tears pooling in his eyes. This was the second time Ken had gone missing and the second time that they had to imagine Ken's broken body somewhere. 

She called Takeru, Hikari, and their parents again and again and each time she got the same answer. These numbers no longer existed. 

She went to bed that night with plans that night to storm over to their apartments and demand answers from each and every one of them. 

The plan went unused when government agents came knocking at their door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gifted this gift to the_rest_of_silence because they were the one who gave me this prompt. Plus, I just love giving gifts. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope you guys like it!


	2. Chapter 2

The Motomiyas were not a family who thought sentences through.

When they had things to say, opinions they thought that needed to be said, words would usually flow out of their mouths without thought. It often led to misunderstanding and problems on all sides.

But, when Daisuke left their apartment one morning only to not return that night, Jun couldn't think of anything to say.

Her sweet, beautiful, annoying otouto never came home. She sat in the living room, digging her nails into the palms of her hands.  _He's been late before,_ she reminded herself. _He'll be fine._

Normally, this train of thought would calm her enough to go to sleep. She would wake up the next morning to their parents already gone to work and Daisuke making pancakes for the two of them. They would throw friendly insults at each other before Jun drove Daisuke to middle school and her to her college. 

But, something was wrong. She could feel it deep in her bones that something was wrong. She glanced at her parents before walking to her room and cleaning the blood off her hands. 

She listened to her parents laugh with no care and wanted to leave. They didn't care that their son was gone. She doubted that they would even notice if he didn't show up for weeks.

This wasn't the first time she thought of leaving. Of packing her things and getting an apartment of her own. She was old enough to leave and she had more than enough money stored away to make it on her own.

It was Daisuke who made her want to stay. Because she knew if she left he would be left to their parents tender mercies. She wouldn't be there to tell him he wasn't stupid, that he did amount to something, and if he wanted to run a ramen cart then he better watch carefully while she paid her bills because he would have to do that if he was going to run an independent business.

She laid in bed that night and said four words under her breath as a mantra. Veemon, XV-Mon, Paildramon, and Imperialdramon. Veemon would keep her brother safe. She looked into that little dragon's eyes and saw utter devotion to Daisuke. She knew that he would do anything to keep her otouto alive. He would throw himself in front of anything if it meant Daisuke would live. He would die if that meant Daisuke could come home.

She woke the night morning and tip toed into Daisuke's room. The covers were thrown to the ground and his textbooks were scattered across the floor. There was strands of both blue and brown hair that could be seen on his pillows.

There were no signs that her little brother ever came home.

Her fingers were trembling as she called Ichijouji Eimi. She tried to appear nonchalant when she asked if Daisuke had slept over there. He did that often and though it would annoy her to know that all the worrying had been for nothing, she would been to relieved to care.

She could hear the muted sob Ichijouji-san tried to hide when she said no. So Ken was missing too.

 She called her friends from college to tell her to take notes while she jogged to the train station. She arrived at the same time as Hida Yumiko. Hida-san held her hands and stroked her hair. Her voice shook when she told her that everything would be okay. Jun teared up when she was informed that Iori and Miyako didn't come home either.

The four of them met up at a small cafe near Ichijouji-san's home. The three older women smiled at her gently and squeezed her hands. She smiled back and bit her lip so she wouldn't scream. She might not have a child but she had a brother and he was the most important person in her life. She didn't need them treating her like a child in this.

She was the first one to call Daisuke. She knew that he kept his cell phone with which ever friend was keeping watch for them that day so while she wouldn't get her brother, she would get information.

She got nothing but static.

Panic erupted in her and she went through the entire Chosen Children, with each phone call giving her static. Except the original's team. Their phone numbers no longer existed.

Tears trickled down Jun's cheeks and she dug her nails into the newly form cuts on her hands. Why were they not answering? They couldn't have all gone into that stupid world could they?

They sat in that cafe of hours before Jun went home. All phone calls had gone unanswered and all she could hear was static. Her cheeks were red and her eyes hurt from rubbing them. Her little brother and his friends were missing and everything was wrong.

So when she saw Sora walking down the street she reacted as any other would in her situation. Jun tackled her and begged to now what was happening.

Sora pushed her off and looked at her like she was crazy. Jun could hear Inoue-san and Hida-san running up behind her but her attention was captured by the words Sora was saying.

"Are you okay miss? I think you mistook me for someone else."

Jun looked in Sora's eyes and couldn't see any of the friendliness Sora always had for her. There was concern and empathy but no recognition. Sora had no idea who she was.

 Her hands fell from where they were gripping Sora's jacket and went to her sides. She starred at Sora blankly and stood there, trembling. A sob burst forth and then she was shaking with them. _Where was her otouto?_

Hida-san brought her into an embrace. She huddled in the mother's hold and cried. Everything was falling apart and she couldn't find Daisuke in the rubble.

She could distantly hear Inoue-san coming up with some insane story for why Jun was making such a scene. Even though all of the noise she could hear Inoue-san's voice shaking and Jun knew that she saw the it too. Sora didn't recognize any of them.

Sora walked away from the three of them, still shooting Jun concerned looks. Jun was led in the opposite direction and brought into Hida-san's apartment.  _What the hell was going on?_

* * *

The next day, two government agents came to Jun's door. 

They walked in without a care, shoving Jun aside when she opened the door. She screamed and tried to push them out but they closed the door and told her to sit down. Her parents had already left and she was the only one in the apartment. So she did the clear thing.

She grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to stab the smaller one in the arm.

The knife was taken from her easily and she was wrestled into a chair. The larger of the two smiled at her and asked if she would be calm down. Jun glared at him and said nothing. The agent nodded and started to explain things to here. It was hard to listen to him after the first sentence though.

"Your brother is dead and we need to talk about what that means."

Every emotion of resistance and defiance drained from her and she slumped in the chair. They had to be lying. Daisuke couldn't be dead. They was no way that her otouto was dead. He was lying. He was a liar, a dirty liar, he had to be.

Though the haze of disbelief, the agent started to explain. Her brother, her sweet baby brother, and his friends were dead. The original team were not to be bothered in this time. The police were not to be notified and there would be no investigations. Her parents had already been notified and they had been told what they had to do.

Jun looked up at him through her tears and asked him what exactly they wanted her to do. 

The agent smiled at her and said one word. Nothing. She was to go to college, hang out with friends, and go about her daily life. She needed to stay away from the Chosen Children. If anyone asked, Daisuke had been transferred to America and was going to a private school.

The agents stayed for a while longer before leaving. They gave her a package of papers explaining everything in more detail. She stayed in that chair and didn't say anything. All words escaped her in this situation and she suspected it would stay like that for a while. The only thing that she could think of was Daisuke. The way he annoyed her to tears at times. And now, according to some government agents, he's dead and she wouldn't even get a body to bury. 

She jumped when the door slammed and she realized that the agents had left. She was alone. Daisuke wouldn't be coming home. He would never come home again. His room would never be filled with the sounds of his idiotic music again. She would never hear his rich laughter again. Her baby brother was dead.

She sat in that chair for hours. Her parents never came home, probably at some stupid business breakfast meeting, and loud pounding on the door came about later in the morning. She stayed there for several seconds before getting up and walking slowly to the door. Hida-san and Inoue-san were on the other side and she opened the door to let them in. Inoue-san cupped her face between her palms and Hida-san gently took her hands and tried to wiped away the drying blood.

The two mothers bombarded her with questions as they led Jun back into her home. They asked her if the agents came and talked to her too. Was she okay? They told her not to believe a word those stupid beasts. The missing children were alive, they had to keep faith.

Jun just stared at the women and didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything. Her words had died along side Daisuke. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas guys! Hope you like this chapter!

After the agents left Inoue Ran's home, her three,  _remaining,_ children looked to her for guidance. Her two girls looked at her with tears in their eyes and a thousand questions on their lips. Her strong son didn't say anything, didn't look at her. He stood up and started cleaning. He got that trait from his father. Whenever he was stressed, he would clean. So, while she tried to reassure her girls, her son picked up soda cans, wiped the table they were sitting at, and started to clean the dishes.

She told her children that Miyako wasn't dead, they had to keep faith. She forced a laugh out of her throat and mocked the agent's news. Miyako, dead? Not likely. She cupped Chizuru's face and stroked Momoe's hair and told them not to worry. Miyako would be home soon. She took Mantarou's hand and tried to look in her son's eyes. She stressed to them that Miyako was a strong girl with powerful friends and allies. She would be fine. 

She brushed her hair back, put her coat on, made sure that her children stayed inside and would let no one in the house, and walked out of her apartment and towards Motomiya Jun's. She met up with Ichijouji Eimi on the way, looking about as frazzled as Ran felt. The two of them stormed Jun-chan's house, armed with pepper spray and the anger of a mother. 

When Jun opened the door, Ran wanted to hit something. The younger woman was a wreck. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair tangled, and, unless Ran was mistaken, there was blood staining her hands. This was what those agent's  _false news_ did. It was because of the those lies that Jun refused to say a word no matter how many questions they asked her. 

It was decided that it wasn't safe for Jun at her house. Her parents were called and told that Jun would be staying at Ran's apartment for an unknown period of time. Her parents weren't concerned at all, for their daughter or son. Ran had to ask herself why people like them had children in the first place. One child missing, the other shutting down emotionally, it was a wonder both of them were still alive.

Because Motomiya Daisuke was still alive. Inoue Ran wouldn't believe anything else.

Hida Yumiko met up with them at Jun's house and helped them pack her things. Yumiko had her lips pursed, her face stained with tears, and her cheeks red and blotchy. It was then when Ran remembered that Yumiko lost her husband a few years ago. To lose Iori would be icing on the cake of misery that had became Yumiko's life.

The four women didn't look at each other while they packed. No words were shared. A cloud of despair and grief hung over their heads. Ran tried to think of something to say. She tried to think of words that would prove to the others that their missing children was still alive. 

She couldn't think of anything. So she didn't say anything.

* * *

 

Ran set Jun up in the spare room of her apartment and went to Miyako's room to see if there was any clues that would prove that Miyako was still alive. She expected to have to dig through mounds of books, half finished projects, and clothes to find anything. She wasn't expecting a clean room with everything put away in its proper place.

Now normally, this wouldn't bother Inoue Ran. Normally, she would be sure that whoever cleaned that room couldn't have been her youngest child. Her child must have been replaced by an alien! Miyako would never move her various projects from the floor to her closet. She would never move her books from her bed to her shelves. No, she used to sigh to her older children when Miyako would finally clean her room. My child must be dead. And oh, so young.

She never regreted saying something so much.

The first thing she thought of was that the agents sent someone to search Miyako's room while she was gone. But, that couldn't be it. Momoe said that no one came to the door while she was picking up Jun. She spun around a few times before spotting a dirty rag sitting on Miyako's dresser.

 _Mantarou._ _Of course._

Mantarou must've gone through Miyako's room in his stress filled cleaning tornado. This, of course, wasn't a problem. It didn't matter that Miyako's books were arranged in an order that Miyako would have a fit at. Miyako could rearrange them when she got home. Miyako's clothes weren't in the proper drawers? Perfectly fine, Miyako knew which clothes went where. Miyako could put her room back in order when she returned.

There was no problem here.

Ran sat down on Miyako's bed and took a deep breath and smelt sheet cleaner and not the strawberry smell of Miyako's shampoo. The tears that came to her eyes were because of allergies. She had a great number of allergies after all.

There was no problem here. None at all. 

* * *

 The next few weeks were hell. 

She spent days with her husband, the two of them trying to convince the other that their youngest daughter was still alive. Of course it was mostly Ran convincing her husband not the other way around. There was no reason to convince Ran of anything. Miyako was totally alive. 100%.

She managed to talk Mantarou down from his rage of cleaning, at lest in her apartment. What he did in his was his business, not her's.

Momoe and Chizuru kept Jun company. They would give Ran daily reports on Jun and whether or not she was speaking. Save for a few words, she kept completely silent. Not that her girls were much better. The words didn't drain out of just Jun it seemed.

She saw the original team of chosen every so often. It was difficult the first time to not say anything. To see the young adults alive and whole when four teenagers could be dead was infuriating. But, the agent's words lingered in Ran's mind. So did their glances at her remaining children. She didn't know if they meant anything or not, but they made her hold her tongue.

She stayed in contact with the Yumiko and Eimi, calling them daily. No information was exchanged, being there no information to exchange. All of Eimi and her conversations were comforting words and brief and quiet sobs that would escape the two women. Her conversations with Yumiko were tense. Surprisingly, it wasn't because of her. Yumiko was taking the possible death of her son as well as could be expected. But, she seemed to have skip denial and go straight to the stage of anger. She snapped at Ran, giving sarcastic replies to any of Ran's attempts to comfort her, and would hang up in the middle of their conversations. 

Ran couldn't blame Yumiko for the amount of anger that she was showing but, it didn't make the hurt she felt any less painful. Yumiko wasn't the only person who lost - who is missing a child. Besides, Iori and the others would be coming home any day now.

Any day now.

* * *

 

Weeks came and went. Weeks turned into a month. Miyako still never came home. 

Ran went into Miyako's room every day and looked around. She took deep breaths and would try to find any lingering scents of Miyako's shampoo or would spend hours rearranging Miyako's books and clothes back to the order that Miyako made herself. She tried to convince herself that it was because Miyako would be too tired to do so when she came back. She told herself that the tears that were streaming down her face were because of the sharp smell of the carpet cleaner. Her allergies were getting worse and worse as time went on.

She told Mantarou that under no circumstances was he to clean Miyako's room again. She told him that whatever kind of cleaner he used was making her sneeze and tear up like nobodies business. She gave him free reign on the rest of the house but Miyako's room was off limits. Miyako's allergies were almost as bad as her after all.

It took about a week more for the truth to set in. It was the day that she walked into Miyako's room and could no longer see past the dust that settled on her daughter's possessions. She stood in the middle of that stupid dust filled room and sank to her knees. Tears wormed down her face and she stuffed her fist in her mouth to stifle the sobs. She brought her head to the floor and accepted the truth.

Miyako wasn't coming home. Miyako was never coming home again.

**Author's Note:**

> I gifted this gift to the_rest_of_silence because they were the one who gave me this prompt. Plus, I just love giving gifts. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope you guys like it!


End file.
